TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Australia is carrying out the world's first mass vaccination of penguins against bird flu, with about 1,000 having received their first dose, ABC News reported on Monday.
"This is the first time that anyone around the world has attempted something like this at this scale," said Phillip Island Nature Parks CEO Catherine Basterfield.
"Our team took some time earlier in the week in testing, planning, trialling different methods of being able to roll out this vaccination program," she said.
The vaccination program begins amid an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in Australian wildlife. The first case of infection in a mammal, a long-nosed fur seal, was confirmed in South Australia on Sunday.
Another suspected case of bird flu was also detected near the world's largest colony of endangered Australian sea lions.
Australian authorities have authorized the vaccination of up to 5,000 little penguins on Phillip Island and up to 800 on St. Kilda.
Each penguin will receive two doses of the vaccine, approximately 21-28 days apart. During the vaccination process, the penguins will be examined, weighed, and microchipped before being released back into the wild.
Avian influenza was detected on Phillip Island in August. The island is home to the world's largest little penguin colony, with a population of approximately 40,000.
Expert modeling indicates that a major outbreak of the disease could result in the deaths of between 8,000 and 16,000 penguins on the island.
Read: Australia Confirms H5N1 Bird Flu Case in Local Mammal